Maria Sharapova: "When I won Wimbledon my mother was ..."

The last tournament officially played by Maria Sharapova was that of the Australian Open, 2020 edition: out of the top 150 players in the world, the Russian lost in the first round against Croatian Donna Vekic,for  6-3 6-4.

A few days earlier she had also gone out in the first game in Brisbane, this time against Jennifer Brady. Maria triumphed in Melbourne in 2008, winning the final over Ana Ivanovic. Speaking on the Second Life podcast, the beautiful Russian recalled a funny episode that took place more than sixteen years ago, on the occasion of her first and only triumph on the grass of Church Road, when she was still a teenager.

The memory of Maria Sharapova

At that edition of Wimbledon, 17-years-old Sharapova already occupied the 17th seed and was only her second participation in the British Major. Maria quite easily overtook Yuliya Beygelzimer, Anne Keothavong, Daniela Hantuchova and Amy Frazier, qualifying for the quarter-finals.

Here she defeated Ai Sugiyama in a comeback, as did Lindsay Davenport in the next round. In the final, she surpassed the American Serena Williams, holder of the title, with a score of 6-1 6-4.

She said: "I remember my mother, at that time, was actually on a plane flight. It was that time when small televisions on planes started to appear, my mother had one on. He saw me win at a height of 30,000 feet. Then I ran to the court and reached my bag, hugged my father and started to take my cell phone and call my mother, forgetting that it was still flying."

The Russian will return to the final at Wimbledon one last time in 2011, but losing to Czech Petra Kvitova. Maria also boasts a silver medal at the London 2012 Olympics, when she was defeated in the last game by Serena Williams with a clear score of 6-0 6-1. Unfortunately, the Church Road event was not held this year due to the Covid emergency.

Interviewed recently, the former 5-times-Slam-champion answered the question of whether she had picked up the racket again recently, she said: "In the last couple of months I haven't done it, because I stayed home. But of course I'll do it when things calm down a little and there is more flexibility. Tennis is a sport that I love very much and I will certainly be back on the court soon."

Maria said she was aware that the sensations will not be the same as before, since she is no longer a professional tennis player: "It will be a bit strange and bizarre, but that's okay. I've always been a person who accepts a feeling or a feeling even when I don't know it completely or don't feel great, I like to find a solution. So I will also address this feeling when I try it."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2KZ18VW